The described subject matter relates generally to turbine engines and more specifically to cooling turbine blades.
Turbine engines provide efficient, reliable power for a wide range of applications in aviation, transportation and industrial power generation. Individual compressor and turbine section(s) may be subdivided into a number of stages, formed of alternating rows of rotor blade and stator vane airfoils. Due to various operational constraints, rotor blades and stator vanes are prone to leakage of compressed gases over their tips from a higher pressure surface to a lower pressure surface. Several attempts have been made to reduce these flows, but they cannot be completely eliminated due to clearance requirements over the airfoil tips which account for variations in both thermal and centrifugal growth of adjacent components.